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A SAILOR APOSTLE 


BY 


FRANK T. BULLEN 

Author of “The Cruise of the Cachalot” 



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NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 
PUBLISHERS 




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I'wo Copies Received 

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CUSS A\ XXc„No, 

4~3 7 A /, 

COPY B. ' 


Copyright, 1903, 

By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. 


Published in February, 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


On the homeward passage from Port Pirie, in 
the big windjammer “ Auckland,” Jem White 
and Aleck Boothroyd became quite chummy. 
And no wonder, for J em was one of those good 
fellows who, by some strange arrangement of 
circumstances, are all alone in the great world 
with hearts aching for the things that most of 
us prize so little ; and Aleck was a young man, 
with a good home and plenty of friends, who 
had persisted in going to sea, but fortunately 
had never lost his love for home and all that 
the blessed word means. Therefore, when dur- 
ing their watch on deck at night, when neither 
had wheel nor look-out, Aleck poured into Jem’s 
greedy ears interminable stories of his boyish 
days in Batley and its neighborhood, dwelt with 
thickened voice upon the way in which the 
taciturn father and sharp-tongued mother just 


4 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


surrounded their brood with a sea of love, all 
the while after the quaint Yorkshire fashion, 
simulating coldness or indifference. Jem lis- 
tened breathlessly, glad of the darkness that 
concealed an occasional tear, and now and then 
sighing, “ Ah, I never know nothing like that. 
How could ye leave it an’ come here ? ” 

Then would Aleck take up another thread, 
and draw on his stores of memory for pictures 
of the dales and moors in summer, the down- 
leaping streams and the busy valleys, where the 
hum of myriad looms, in their ramparts of massy 
stone, sing ever the song of Britain’s greatness 
among the stations through the industry and 
perseverance of her sons and daughters. And 
as if he knew that these pictures needed per- 
spective, he told also of the chapels, the choirs, 
the Sunday-schools, and how religion supplied 
the recreative side, until it was plain that no 
man or woman need fall back on unlawful 
pleasures from sheer hunger of heart, as so many 
do in less favored countries. 

Naturally Aleck’s pictures were incomplete, 
because for one thing he was not yet a Christian, 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


5 


and therefore could only look upon the matter 
from the worldly or utilitarian side, and for 
another he had, thanks to his parents, led a 
sheltered life, and his knowledge of evil was 
therefore limited. Let me not be misunder- 
stood. I do not mean that an experimental 
knowledge of evil is essential in order to a proper 
presentation of the Gospel with its advantages 
— God forbid, since that would be preaching 
that all may do evil that good may come ; but it 
would certainly seem axiomatic to say that no 
man save he who has been burnt can give a just 
estimate of the effects of fire. But what Aleck 
failed in poor Jem supplied. He had known 
from earliest infancy only the seamy side of life. 
Of love, that essence of the Highest, he had 
known nothing. He had been loved — that goes 
without saying — by God, who chooses His in- 
struments where He will, and surrounds them 
with His wardens until in due time they carry 
out His behests, but Jem was unconscious of 
this. He only knew that a story of oppression, 
of unkindness, or, on the other hand, of tender- 
ness, love, and forethought for the helpless, 


6 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


always made his heart swell, and his eyes brim, 
but he did not know why. So that he was 
really ripe for the operation Aleck was uncon- 
sciously performing upon him — that of letting 
the light of love shine into his mind by telling 
him of its operations personally experienced. It 
was all so new and strange and beautiful to 
poor Jem. He was no reader; alas, he could 
hardly read, and so the false sentiment and un- 
natural situations of the modern story had not 
spoiled him, neither had he become sceptical of 
good in the world because he had hitherto been 
hardly conscious of its existence. 

By the time the “ Auckland ” reached Hull, 
Aleck had become so impressed by his ship- 
mate’s fervor of belief and anxiety to see the 
scene of so much loving kindness, that he ex- 
acted a very willing promise from Jem that he 
would accompany him home to Batley, and in- 
stead of spending his pay-day among the pur- 
lieus of Hull, seeking pleasure and finding only 
pain, he would come and put in a month among 
the lovely Yorkshire dales, to taste and see for 
himself if these things were so. The prospect 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


7 


so delighted the twain that although the rest 
of the passage was coarse, cold, and miserable, 
they hardly noticed it in the joy of anticipation. 
And when at last comfortably seated in an L. & 
Y. train they were bowling merrily westward, I 
doubt whether in Great Britain could be found 
two happier young men than Aleck and Jem. 

During the flood of talk as they journeyed, 
Jem accidentally mentioned that he had once 
spent the best part of a year cruising to and fro 
between Sydney, N.S.W., and the New Hebrides 
in a trading schooner, and that he had learned 
what might almost be called the Lingua Franca 
of the Pacific, a curious mixture of Polynesian 
tongues that will carry a man almost anywhere 
over that mighty ocean with the certainty that 
he will be sufficiently well understood to get 
his wants supplied and be fairly well treated in 
the bargain, unless his hosts happen to have a 
war on their hands. This was mightily inter- 
esting to Aleck, for one of the most vivid recol- 
lections of his childhood was the way in which 
missionary enterprise, and especially among the 
South Seas, was taken up and cherished by all 


8 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


whom he knew, principally his own immediate 
family circle and relatives. And he hugged him- 
self at the thought that here was actually a man 
who could tell stories of those far-off islands at 
first hand, stories which he knew would be lis- 
tened to with the most intense interest by all at 
home. 

So the journey to Batley passed all too 
swiftly, each of the young men being filled with 
keenest appreciation of his surroundings, and 
absorbing enjoyment as a dry sponge absorbs 
moisture. But when at last they drew up to 
the door of Aleck’s home, and mother and 
sisters pounced upon the dear returned one, the 
sight made poor Jem feel desperately down- 
hearted for the moment. For it revealed to 
him his own heart-hunger, his own desperate 
desire for such love as he saw being lavished 
upon his friend, and the apparent impossibility 
of it ever being his. The good mother was, of 
course, the first to notice his wistful look, and 
immediately, her heart going out to the lonely 
man, she set herself to give him a welcome 
almost as warm as her son’s, and succeeded so 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


9 


well, too, that by the time father and the boys 
came home from the mill, Jem was as much at 
home as a member of the family. Aleck drew 
him out, and his yarns followed one another 
with easy flow, while mother and daughters 
listened raptly, and Aleck glowed with pride at 
his own cleverness in bringing home such an 
addition to the family circle. 

Then, when father and the boys had added 
their quota to the Yorkshire welcome, followed 
high tea, with two hungry sailors unhindered 
by shyness to eat of it. Let us draw a veil over 
the proceedings, only hinting at the delight with 
which mother pressed the good food upon the 
pair, exclaiming every now and then, “ Eh, puir 
laads, ye mun ha’ been a’most clemmed t’ death.” 
Tea over, Aleck was reminded by his father that 
it was the mid-week service night and that there 
was to be a committee of the whole church 
present afterwards to discuss arrangements for 
a mission fortnight — a general campaign against 
the forces of evil by all the Free Churches of 
Batley and the vicinity. “ An’ tha knaws, 
laad,” said the sturdy old man, “that the good 


10 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


owd Methody Church mun be in t’ foregrund o’ 
a baattle like this. We mun be all at th’ enemy 
and alius at him, as graand owd John Wesley 
was hissen.” 

Much more father said to the same purport as 
they were going chapelwards, to all of which 
Jem listened as in a kind of dream, understand- 
ing indeed the words but not their import, yet 
so pleased with all that was passing as to go 
whithersoever his friends led him with a glad 
submissiveness very pleasant to see, especially 
remembering the paths wherein he had been led 
aforetime. So, still in that pleasant hazy state 
of mind, Jem reached the spacious sensible stone 
building which, as in so many other towns of 
our North Country, the fervent spirits of the 
worshippers had reared, not as temples of art to 
testify to the outward reality of their religion, 
but as meeting-places where, secure from the 
inclemency of the weather, brother and sister in 
the Lord might meet together to speak often 
one with another of the great things of God. No 
meretricious adornment met Jem’s eye, nothing 
to distract his attention from the supreme busi- 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


11 


ness in hand, and presently he found himself 
with a hymn-hook in his hand standing up, 
listening, while his heart pumped scalding tears 
of delight down his tanned face, to a York- 
shire congregation singing, “O God of Bethel, 
by Whose hand.” 

Is there any need of sculpture or painting or 
architecture to solemnize the senses during the 
worship of God while we have congregational 
praise ? A gathering of people in a desert sing- 
ing the Old Hundredth psalm can, if emotional- 
ism be the object, far outweigh all merely material 
objects, and does in a divinely sanctioned way 
lift the earnest soul to the Celestial Courts. 
Poor Jem felt this (I don’t know why I call 
him “ poor ” except as a term of affection), and 
stood choking, longing to join in, but unable 
from ignorance of the words. Having a truly 
musical ear, he soon got hold of the tune. And 
then the prayer. Figure to yourself, if you can, 
this young man’s mind. Intelligent, percipient, 
warm-hearted; deeply spiritual without know- 
ing it, never having heard a man pray, for the 
performances of the chaplain at the work-house 


12 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


where his most plastic years were passed were a 
shame and scandal, not merely to good reading 
but to honest gentlemanly behavior, as much so 
indeed as the awful travesty of worship one 
hears in the Chapels of St. Peter’s at Rome. 

Think of him, then, suddenly introduced to 
the communion of man with God in very 
truth, of a conversation carried on between man 
and his Maker by invitation, and with a sense of 
reality no external aid could procure, and you 
will get a faint idea of Jem’s mental condition 
at this time. He felt the tears still stream- 
ing down and wondered why, with one corner 
of his brain, in a strange, impersonal way. But 
gradually his emotion became controllable, and 
he was able to listen with all his native intelli- 
gence at work to the old sweet words that to so 
many of us, alas, have become almost meaning- 
less by much repetition. Happily the pastor 
was a man to whom that of which he was speak- 
ing was the only absolutely vital thing in the 
world, a man without oratorical gifts or any 
extraordinary amount of scholastic learning, but 
a man who spoke what he did know and testi- 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


13 


fied to what he had seen with a transparent 
sincerity that seemed as if it must convince the 
most sceptical. 

Well, when the party went home that night 
Jem walked as one in a dream. There had been 
no mission sermon preached, and consequently 
the full glory of the plan of salvation had not 
broken in upon him, but (and should it not 
always be so?) Mr. Lethbridge, the preacher, 
was just brimming over with the spirit of Christ, 
so in whatever he said, wherever he said it, 
there was the savor of the Great Sacrifice, a 
suggestion of the Light that coming into the 
world lighteth every man whose eyes are opened. 
And Jem felt this, he could not have told any- 
body why, but he felt that he was just upon the 
threshold of a great discovery, and it awed him 
into an almost strained silence. So much so 
that his dear motherly hostess feared that shy- 
ness had seized upon him again and exerted her- 
self to remove it, while Aleck was filled with 
concern, for he had never seen his chum like 
this before and did not know what to do about 
it. At last the time for retiring came, and, as 


14 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


the Boothroyds’ house was no whit larger than 
sufficient for their own needs, a room had been 
taken for Jem in a widow’s house near by. To 
this he was conducted by Aleck, the good-nights 
spoken, and he was left alone — instantly realiz- 
ing that this was what he had wanted — to come 
apart and meditate upon the strange, beautiful 
things he had heard about that day. 

For a long time he sat gazing at vacancy, a 
phrase of the parson’s prayer repeating itself 
over and over again in his mind: u Jesus, con- 
stant companion, ever-present Friend,” his hun- 
gry heart feeding upon the thought that this, 
which blindly he had been craving for so long, 
needing so deeply, was a fact, a tremendous 
certainty. Presently, as by an overmastering 
impulse, he slid off his chair on to his knees and 
said, as if knowingly addressing a present 
person: “ Jesus, let a poor chap that’s never 
had any friends or relations have you. I feel 
such a fool. I can’t understand but a very 
little of what I ’ve heard, but feel sure I should 
be able to if you told me yourself. Let me see 
you, let me know you, let me have you for my 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


15 


Friend that won’t ever let me be lonely any 
more.” 

Prayer such as that never went unanswered 
yet, and Jem White rose from his knees in con- 
scious fellowship with Christ, with no feeling 
of dissatisfaction because with mortal eyes he 
could not see, with actual arms he could not 
embrace his Lord, and with his sense of loneli- 
ness gone forevermore. 

May I just in passing, even at the risk of 
being thought prosy, anticipate any objections 
that may arise as to the probability of conver- 
sion like this, by saying that it is undoubtedly 
the case that the Elder Brother does often re- 
veal himself to a ready soul with but the slight- 
est amount of human intervention. And thrice 
blessed are those whom He thus makes alive, 
for He will surely go on to educate, to prepare 
the new man for the work He wants him to do. 

When in the morning Jem presented himself 
at the Boothroyd’s breakfast table according to 
arrangement, Aleck stared at him amazedly. It 
was the same man, — there could be no doubt of 
that, — but that light in the eye, that conscious 


16 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


air of freedom, that indescribable expression of 
the combined elements of love, joy, peace per- 
vading the manly features, whence were they 
derived ? If ever man was puzzled, Aleck was. 
Not so his father. Christopher Boothroyd knew 
the signs full well both by experience and ob- 
servation, and his grip of Jem’s hand was warm 
and clinging, while all his big soul looked out 
of his eyes at the new Man. But I must hurry 
on. It would be a delightful task to tell of that 
mission week at Batley and Jem’s part in it. 
How the missioner, being wise as well as holy, 
sternly discountenanced the smallest approach 
to artificial fervor, or superficial professions of 
heart — change not warranted by observed fact — 
how he grappled Jem to his heart and kept him 
laboring joyfully — oh, yes, it would make a 
stirring tale. But alas, it cannot be. For Jem, 
at the expiration of the fortnight, suddenly 
started from what had seemed to him just a 
heavenly dream and declared that off to sea he 
must go. He had given so liberally of his earn- 
ings to the cause, that he found himself running 
short of cash, and anxious above all things to 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


17 


be of good report, he determined to return to 
sea as speedily as might be. Every argument 
that could be employed by his friends was used. 
Aleck pointed out to him that he, Aleck, was 
going to settle down ashore. Polly Boothroyd, 
the eldest daughter, went as far as maidenly re- 
serve permitted in letting him see how glad it 
would make her to have him stay with them for 
“ a full due ; ” but no: a power he could not re- 
sist was dragging him back to his vocation and 
no man might hinder him. 

So it came to pass that one week after the 
close of the Mission services at Batley, Jem, 
loaded with keepsakes of many kinds, strode 
steadfastly down to the quay in Hull docks 
where lay the “ fine British-built barque 4 Rosa- 
mond’ for Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, with 
quick despatch.” Just a little concession to the 
flesh he made as he stepped into her foul and 
filthy to’-gallant fo’c’sle in the shape of a 
shudder of disgust and a sigh of self-pity. 
Why, had these not been his normal surround- 
ings all his working life ? Yes, but fellowship 
with the Most High is the most elevating and 


18 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


ennobling of all influences, and it is a common- 
place with’ those who have known many con- 
verted men and women, that the first noticeable 
effect that this spiritual change has upon them 
is a keen desire for cleanliness and decency ex- 
ternally as well as internally, — a mysterious 
desire to obey the command, “ Be ye clean that 
bear the vessels of the Lord,” even though they 
may never have read the passage. But that 
small toll paid to human weakness, Jem set 
about putting his bunk shipshape, arranging his 
gear, and knocking up nails and beckets. Then 
as there was still no sign of departure, not even 
the arrival of one of his shipmates, he turned to 
and cleaned the fo’c’sle out. It was grand ex- 
ercise, and the mate, peeping in to see what the 
splashing of water might mean, stepped back in 
astonishment, muttering : “ Vot for a loonatic 
ve haf got heear ? ” (He was a German.) How- 
ever, Jem was not interfered with in his labor 
of love, and when at last the crew did conde- 
scend to come on board — at the last moment, 
of course — he was lying calmly in his bunk 
spelling out the blessed words of the fifth 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


19 


chapter of Matthew. One by one they tumbled 
into the fo’c’sle, all comfortably oblivious, 
through drink, of their surroundings. Yet 
strangely enough none failed to notice that the 
fo’c’sle was clean. It was their lurid com- 
mentary upon this unfamiliar phenomenon that 
first jarred upon Jem. He was quite prepared 
for their being drunk — nay, he found himself 
— one side of his brain wondering why he 
was n’t shocked instead — laughing at some of 
their uncouth gambols. But to hear God re- 
quested to strike the speaker dead, to hear 
Jesus, His name, mingled familiarly with com- 
monplace dirt made him physically ill. And 
this in itself was a revelation, because it had 
never troubled him before, being his daily lan- 
guage, his daily atmosphere of conversation ever 
since he first went to sea. 

There is nothing amid all the mountainous 
mass of evidence, real or assumed, for or against 
the varieties of Christianity that is more striking 
than this — that in a day, an hour, life-long 
habits are changed : the loved becomes abhorred, 
and the mud-grovelling human hog becomes the 


20 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


confidant of the King of Glory. Let who will 
gainsay it, the human documents are on record 
everywhere, and will ever be beyond contradic- 
tion. 

Oh, what a night that was ; the departure 
from Hull with but one man really fit for ser- 
vice. But that man was preeminently fit, and 
strange as it may appear, his example, his cheer- 
ful voice so wrought upon the poor sodden ones 
that without mishap of any kind the “ Rosa- 
mond” was got well into the North Sea, 
watches were set, and the voyage begun. 

From henceforward Jem’s life was what most 
of us would have thought a martyrdom without 
the crowning mercy. Yet was it not without 
its consolations, for although he was often 
driven out into the cold darkness, when he 
should have been resting his weary body, by the 
terrible foulness and ribaldry of the speech 
below, he always found that whenever any pain 
or mental trouble assailed any of his shipmates 
he was sought for to administer consolation. 
By the side of a man like this, what becomes of 
the legendary, pusillanimous, and always myth- 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


21 


ical saints of the Roman Church? Yet as far as 
human knowledge goes, he did not succeed in 
bringing into the fold of God one member of 
the crew. Although, after the way of the 
world, eager enough to avail themselves of his 
company and sympathetic counsel when in need, 
all of them seemed ready to combine at a 
moment’s notice to jeer at and revile him. And 
they did not know that his inward conflict was 
hardest of all. For his conscience was so ten- 
der that even the momentary flash of anger at 
his persecutors, the resentment at being put by 
the weak officers to all the worst work because 
of his docility, the sense of weariness felt occa- 
sionally at having no kindred soul with whom to 
exchange holy thoughts, gave him acute pain, 
made him sometimes mourn: “How long, O 
Lord, how long ? ” 

One hundred and thirty-four days elapsed, 
and in some hazy way all hands forward knew 
that their ship was in the South Pacific, and 
not a great way, as sailors reckon distance, 
from some of the island groups that stud that 
wonderful ocean. More than that they could 


22 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


not know, for after the bad old fashion which 
prevailed (and still does in the old type of ship), 
they were kept in darkest ignorance of her 
whereabouts. But she plodded wearily along, 
blue sky overhead, blue sea below, day succeed- 
ing day without incident, amid an incessant 
rumble of growling from the fo’c’sle at food and 
ship and officers, punctuated at intervals by 
Jem-baiting. Then came a night when the 
heavens grew black, the sea took on an un- 
earthly light and a sulphurous stench. Lam- 
bent flames of electricity played about the old 
ship as she tumbled uneasily in an undecided 
sea. Terror stalked among the crew, and voices 
were hushed. One by one they came, like 
Nicodemus, to talk to Jem, whose spiritual 
stature rose in that dread hour to its full earthly 
height. He became to their frightened hearts a 
rock of refuge, and his steadfast soul dealt out 
to them a rich measure of his own inalienable 
joy. All that men could do had been done — 
it was not much, for most of the gear being old 
and worn had been ripped from the yards and 
stays by the first fierce blast of the hurricane, 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


28 


and the bare masts and yards stuck up through 
the blackness like withered trees stripped of 
their dry leaves by the snarling breath of winter. 

Onward through that elemental strife the hap- 
less vessel drove, her crew just enduring blindly, 
unknowing at times whether they were above or 
beneath the tormented sea, except for the tre- 
mendous voice of the storm. Fear clutched 
every heart in its icy grip, — all but one. Jem 
alone felt a strange exultation, a sense of sub- 
lime participation with the Power in whose 
Almighty hand lay the source of the storm, a 
serene confidence in the wisdom directing its 
terrible course, a perfect satisfaction with his 
own position. Yet at the same time, he felt an 
intense sympathy with, and pity for, his terror- 
smitten shipmates, and a devouring desire to 
bring them into the peace so bountifully granted 
to himself. So he communed with his Friend 
in silence, not asking ought for himself, for he 
felt that all his needs were supplied, but entreat- 
ing that these unhappy ones might yet be saved. 

Only the revelation of final things can tell us 
whether his prayer was answered. His last 


24 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


sensation before passing into oblivion was of 
profoundest peace, immediately following upon 
a shock so terrific that in it all matter seemed 
to be disintegrated. 

Gradually, painfully, and laboriously, life 
came back to a cast-up body upon a shining 
beach in the full glare of the sun. Near that 
quiet form the little waves sang soothingly, 
rippling so gently over the immaculate sand, 
sea-birds hovered over it curiously, and occa- 
sionally a crab, in amazing tangle of legs and 
claws, approached it, sidling dubiously, with 
many a tack, to and fro. Presently, as if in a 
spasm of pain, the cracked lips unclosed, a deep 
sigh issued, the salt-encrusted eyelids were 
raised, and Jem, alive and sole survivor of those 
who had endured last night’s terrors in the 
“Rosamond,” sat up and gazed wonderingly 
around as his scattered wits straggled back to 
their home. Then as recollection ensued, he 
lifted his face heavenward and said simply, 
“ Thank God. He ’s saved me for something, I 
know, though I ’d rather have stayed at home if 
I c’d have had my own way. He knows best 
though, I ’m sure.” 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


25 


As these thoughts coursed through his mind, 
a little group of naked, savage-looking forms 
emerged from the tangle of greenery and down- 
hurled trees skirting the beach. With infinite 
caution they approached the sitting man, spears 
and clubs upraised to strike. And a few 
moments more would have seen the just-returned 
life dashed from Jem’s battered body, but that 
in some mysterious way he became conscious of 
the nearness to him of human beings, and turn- 
ing he held up both his hands, saying quietly, 
“ Ofa, Ofa.” The salutation, akin to the East- 
ern “ Salaam,” and the Sandwich Islands 
“ Aloha,” was not quite in their dialect, but 
these almost nude savages understood, and 
dropping their weapons came hurriedly to him, 
surrounding him and plying him with questions. 
He only grasped the meaning of an occasional 
word, and could only reply in such phrases as 
he remembered of the language he once spoke 
fairly well, but it was sufficient to keep his 
visitors from summarily despatching him ; suffi- 
cient to induce them to take him before their 
chief. 


26 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


That was a notable interview. Surrounded 
by hundreds of naked savages, both male and 
female, watching his every movement with a 
curiosity beyond the power of words to describe, 
he took the food offered him calmly and grate- 
fully. But before eating, according to his 
never-varying custom, he bowed his head upon 
his hands and silently gave thanks to the Giver. 
The savages, keenly observant of every move- 
ment, as is their invariable habit, hushed their 
chatter instantly. What was the “ papalang ” 
(white man) doing? Why did he hide his 
face ? As soon as he looked up again torrents 
of questionings broke forth on every hand, but 
the chief, with grave consideration for his guest, 
gave a few curt orders, which were instantly 
obeyed, and silence as profound as that of a 
calm at sea reigned while Jem satisfied his 
healthy hunger upon baked yams, fowl cooked 
in an earthen oven till bone was hardly dis- 
tinguishable from flesh, so soft and succulent 
had the whole body become, and unripe cocoa- 
nuts flowing with sweet water, or milk as we 
call it. His meal ended, he again gave thanks, 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


27 


wiped his fingers on the leaves plentifully scat- 
tered around him for the purpose, gave a happy 
sigh of satisfaction, and faced his host smilingly, 
prepared to talk. 

Then the babel of queries burst forth anew, 
but again the chief came to the rescue. Silenc- 
ing the clamor by a few dignified words, and 
constituting himself the spokesman of the crowd, 
he said to Jem : 

“ Why, before eating, do you lower your head 
and cover your face ? ” 

“ Because I must needs thank God for pro- 
viding me with what I cannot live without.” 

“ What is God?” 

Reader, pity Jem. Burning to tell, yet un- 
able to find a word. Conscious of his ignorance 
even among people speaking his language — but 
here, able only to speak in monosyllables and 
by signs, yet called upon to define God ! But 
Jem possessed the talisman of prayer in that 
supreme degree only vouchsafed to those who 
forgetting their years become as little children, 
and so he lifted his anxious face skywards say- 
ing : “ O God, make me able to tell them who 
you are.” 


28 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


Immediately there burst forth from the crowd 
a sort of dignified wail : “ He speaks to Taiaroa. 
He talks with the high God (Atuas). What 
manner of man is this whom the sea gods have 
cast up to dwell among us? Let us worship 
him.” And as if bowed by one impulse, the 
whole crowd bent forward with a swaying move- 
ment crying : u Hail to the sea-born servant of 
the gods ! Hail to him who comes to bless the 
people of this land ! ” 

But Jem, who had only a short while ago 
laboriously spelled through that wonderful 
account of the tragic scene at Lystra when Paul 
and Barnabas were taken for gods, sprang to 
his feet, and with an impulse that the latent 
side of his brain wondered at, thundered forth a 
denunciation of the wickedness of giving unto 
men the praise and worship due to the most 
High God. Words welled up from his heart, 
words that he could not remember ever having 
known before, but now just suited to his great 
need. And with them, as with a two-edged 
sword, he smote the hearts of the children of 
nature before him. Need we assume a miracle 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


29 


here ? I think not. For as the sensitive plate 
in the camera reveals stars invisible to mortal 
eye, so does the far more sensitive plate of the 
brain reproduce, given the requisite stimulus, 
words and thoughts received almost, if not 
quite, unconsciously, in by-gone years. I once 
heard a Kanaka who previously had been ac- 
counted the most stupid of our crew, the only 
one unable to learn even a few words of English, 
under the influence of drink deliver himself of a 
long discourse in English, making his auditors 
laugh consumedly, but stare and gasp between 
whiles. I only quote this experience to show 
how needless it is to assign every non-under- 
standable happening, just because it is connected 
with Christian work, to the miraculous. I do 
most firmly believe that the Infinite Power 
never alters the incidence of His laws, natural 
or supernatural, unless there is the gravest 
need. And it is a moot point, considering how 
vast is our ignorance of even natural laws, 
whether He who laid them down ever finds it 
necessary to alter them at all. 

At any rate Jem stood up before the assem- 


30 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


bled crowd of savages and told them, if not in 
their own language, in words which they could 
grasp, the story of Jesus. “That sweet story 
of old,” in all its bright simplicity, told to a 
primitive audience who had never heard it 
before. Told, too, bereft of all pseudo-priestly 
assumptions and extravagances. Told by a 
simple, saved sinner, saved by immediate con- 
tact with the Source of Life, the Son of Man, 
the King of Glory. Are there not many of us 
would gladly lay down our lives for such an 
opportunity as that ? 

Far into the night the wonderful news was 
discussed, until Jem, having sat down in his 
place, fell asleep immediately, and was carefully 
covered and left to slumber peacefully. Men 
and women sat at their hut doors and spoke one 
to another of the coming of God in? Christ Jesus. 
Coming poor and homeless and hungry and 
weary because most of mankind were like that. 
Coming with a full knowledge of and a perfect 
detestation of priestly forms, ceremonies, and 
interventions. Coming in such simple wise that 
no man or woman, foolish and ignorant to the 


A SAILOR APOSTLE. 


31 


border line between insanity and sense, could 
fail to understand the message of salvation to 
every creature. 

As day succeeded day J em’s task grew heavier 
and heavier. But so grew his delight in it. 
He gloried in the way his Lord had chosen for 
him. All things else were forgotten in the 
delight of imprinting upon these plastic minds 
the intense beauty, use, and reward of the 
Christian verities. Only he did long for a 
Bible. Naturally, but oh, how God is able to 
make up deficiences ! There is no book like 
that Bible, but if a man whom God hath 
touched has no Bible and no memory, God is 
able and willing and anxious to make up that 
great loss to him as no one else could possibly 
do. (Forgive me for applying these adjectives 
to God.) 

My story draws to a close. Jem’s ministra- 
tions (for want of a better word) continued for 
a space of two years. Never once did he say a 
word condemnatory of the island’s customs, 
hideously evil though they were, for he had 
grasped the knowledge that, while you cannot 


32 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


push out the dark, the entrance of light will 
dispel it by virtue of its own inherent properties. 
So he went on telling of Jesus. And I believe 
that the Son of Man in invisible glory came 
down and inspired Jem to present Him faith- 
fully to those unclothed humans in that far- 
away unconsidered corner of earth. Yes, and 
doubtless He stimulated Jem’s memory, too, for 
he sang them hymns only heard by him in 
Batley before, but now mysteriously remembered 
as to words and tune. So that the hills and 
vales of that beautiful group of islands re- 
echoed “ Wrestling Jacob,” and u Jesus, Lover,” 
and many another old favorite of militant Chris- 
tians the world over — God bless them ! 

Then came the end. Or was it the beginning ? 
“ God moves in a mysterious way,” and although 
it may be inexplicable to us, it is probably true 
that it was but the beginning of Jem’s real 
work. He went down to the sea to bathe with 
a host of his friends, all happy, all clean-minded, 
all worshipping God. And they swam out 
through the thundering surf, hundreds of them, 
each carrying a little flat board upon which he 


A SAILOR APOSTLE . 


33 


or she would presently come flying shorewards, 
carried in triumph by a mighty wave. Jem was 
an adept at the sport, loving it as one who knew 
the connection between mens sana in corpore 
sano. But on this occasion he missed his board 
at the twelfth return. The vast breaker imme- 
diately became his enemy, and twirling him like 
a leaf in its clutch, dashed his head against a 
stone protruding from the beach, and spilt out 
the mortal life. Weep not, sigh not for Jem, 
great, blessed, happy Jem ! Called to a higher 
ministry : 

" This common sailor, thus uncommon grown, 

His work allotted done, has gone to see 
The Glory of the Lord he loved, with opened e’e. 
From henceforth nought shall vex him ; not a groan 
Or sigh from laboring souls he loved to own 
As kinsmen. On the great celestial sea 
He sails. From all his hindrances set free, 

His name engraven on the great white stone. 

" Oh, trembling worker for the loving Lord, 

Take heart of grace, there is no need for fear, 

Since He who ruleth all girds on thy sword, 

And gives thee proof that He is ever near. 

Rest thou in Him, Jem’s spoken, living Word, 

And He shall bring thee Home without a tear.” 





MAY 18 1907 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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